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This is the first in a series of sponsored posts where we look behind the scenes at American clothing company, Karen Kane.

Last week Greg and I spent a day at Karen Kane Headquarters in Vernon, California, touring their design rooms, factory floors, despatch area and all the satellite sections that make the operation flow and function (go backstage to find out how this all came about).

Karen Kane is a family based business with Karen herself as head of design. Husband Lonnie is in charge of production and finance, and eldest son Michael is director of marketing. Michael also has the challenging task of launching the company’s online store in July.

Karen Kane custom built their premises 18 years ago and they are HUGE (150,000 square feet). They produce five labels (Karen Kane, Karen Kane Women’s, Karen by Karen Kane, Fifteen Twenty, and Red 23). Karen herself designs for all of them, together with her lead designer Myung, who has been working with Karen for twenty years.

Greg and I were greeted warmly by Karen and Michael at reception. Karen was casual yet uber chic in skinny jeans, black silky blouse (her own design), wedged sandals and gorgeous chunky silver jewelry. Michael looked hip and cool in tapered grey jeans, slim-fit button down shirt and industrial boots. Right from the outset I knew that this was going to be a fabulous day.

We headed directly to a conference room that contained the final samples and info sheets for the next six months of delivery. Michael had laid out beautiful design illustrations and photos of fashion shoots on the conference room table. Karen Kane actually shoots the photos for their look books in this room. I was itching to look through the rails of final samples, but restrained myself until later.

As I expected, my buying days came flooding back as soon as I walked into the Karen Kane building, and before long my head was exploding with questions. Over the next few hours Karen would answer every one of them with with great insight, humble grace, infinite patience, and a confident dignity that one rarely sees in the Rag Trade. Without question, Karen is a leader at her game.

We started in the “Work Room”, which is where Karen’s design process starts. It is filled with trims, swatches of fabrics, drawings, sketches, photographs, outfits for modeling shoots, and all sorts of other things that fuel those creative juices. Karen has other designers that create final computer aided sketches of clothing and outfits, but for Karen, it’s still about a small sketchpad and an old fashioned pencil. She sketches her ideas and sticks them on big white boards with swatches. After mulling over her ideas and tweaking the sketches, she’ll have the designs sampled up in the Sample Room. Once that happens, the design receives an official style number in red ink.

Karen sketches up many, many designs, but only the best make it onto her big white work boards. The designs that don’t make the cut are not discarded, but stuck to the edge of a large table just in case she needs to return to them later. They are thrown away at the end of a retail season.

Next we went to Karen’s office, passing several important support functions on the way. In one room, two fabulous ladies were ticketing and assembling the final samples for Karen Kane’s nationwide merchandising staff. We passed the fabric ordering room, where it’s a full time job to order the right fabric for garment production (the lovely lady below surrounded by fabric swatches). We also passed the Human Resources, Customer Service and Accounting Departments, and everyone was as friendly as can be. It was great to see an overview of the support functions that make it all happen, and a reminder that the clothing manufacturing business has millions of moving parts.

Karen doesn’t spend too much time in her own office (that’s beautiful Karen sitting at her desk), because she spends most of it in the Work Room, Sample Room and in other parts of the factory overseeing the design process and attending to the hundreds of queries that come up in a day. Michael told us that it’s not uncommon to see a queue of 20 people waiting to speak to Karen at any point in the building.

Clothing designers tend to work around 9 months in advance of products hitting the store shelves and Karen is currently designing for Spring 2012 (Spring 2012 Fashion Week is in early September). She collects fabric swatches and ideas and puts them into separate drawers that are each associated with a particular month of delivery. And yes, there is a separate room and additional staff required just to manage the process of sample fabrication and trim selection because Karen Kane designs and manufactures five labels.

While Karen’s design focus is one season, the company actually juggles three seasons at once. They are currently designing for Spring 2012, producing Fall 2011 and managing the sales for Spring & Summer 2011. Although I loved hearing about the beginning of the design process in the Work Room and seeing all the support funcitons, my favourite part of the day was what came next: the Sample Room. We’ll cover that later today, so stay tuned.

I can’t wait for the post about samples! I hope we get a sneak peek at the fabrics, patterns and colors Karen is considering for spring 2012. Love all the pics ~ this is clearly a humming, dynamic workplace!

So interesting. I love hearing about the backstage elements of things, especially when I know so little about the industry. It’s so illuminating to hear about what happens, to get a better idea of just how much work goes into things and how many people are involved. Looking forward to hearing more!

Fascinating. I’m going to love this series. The amount of creativity and organization required to run a successful label is really mind-boggling! I’m so impressed with the Kane family for creating all this out of what was once a two-man, home-based operation.

Angie, does this visit indicate a future partnership between KK and YLF? I’m so interested in the ways you and Greg have found to link the site to the industry itself. To me, it’s one of the things that keeps YLF fresh. Well done!

I’m really going to enjoy this series. It’s nice to learn more about the process of a clothing label besides just runway shows which are the typical view into what a design house is doing. I feel like I am perched on Angie’s shoulder with an inside look and just loving it!

Fabulous – I never knew a post on this topic would hold my attention. You are such a gifted writer Angie and you transported us right there with you along with Greg’s fabulous photography. I’m curious, how many total employees does KK have today?

I’m excited to learn about the entire clothing design, manufacture and marketing process. It’s interesting to see that there are so many different clothing lines that are all simultaneously working on 3 different seasonal collections.

It’s obvious that there is no one Karen Kane customer. I can see a wide variety of styles from casual to relaxed and easy dress clothes. I am also pleased to see a wide variety of sizes represented. Has a petite friendly line ever been considered? According to the US National Health Service, the average height of American women is 5″4″. Many women would be interested clothes that fit properly.

Let’s see: Karen Kane is a family-owned business, launched by a woman (and mom), owned and operated in the U.S., making stylish, 100% wearable clothing for women. And, they are smart, as witnessed by the fact that they have realized the power of YLF and have embraced Angie and Greg.

I love this company!! I just bought two summer dresses and can hardly wait for the fall line.

What an opportunity to see behind the scenes. It’s fascinating to learn how far in advance they work. The fact that 20 people line up at a time to speak with Karen tells me that she retains control of most everything going on there!

Angie, maybe you’ll cover this in subsequent posts, but I’d be interested in learning more about the company’s various labels (i.e. Red 21 and Fifteen Twenty). I’ve never seen those in stores, and I’d like to know how they differ from the Karen Kane label.

Echoing what Laura said above ~ I’ve known (and worn) Karen Kane clothing for 20 years (!) but only first heard about Fifteen Twenty and Red 21 in your interview with Karen earlier this year. I’d love to learn more about them, especially since Red 21 launches this fall.

This post perfectly illustrates one of the strongest points of YLF blog – fashion demystified. In a no-nonsense, knowledgeable, thorough and for the fashion-world outsiders understandable style, we get a glimpse of what it looks like behind the scenes.

Sparky, the last large picture of the open draw full of fabric swatches represents the first month’s delivery of Spring 2012!

Laura, your comment made my day. Thank you

Michelle, your words are so true.

Lisa, having our readers perched on my shoulder is precisely how I wanted to walk you through the process. Good to know that’s how you perceive it.

April and Ornela, we don’t know what the future holds, but YLF is *always* looking for ways to share meaningful information. I am still very passionate about my fashion buying days, and reliving them by visiting impressive manufacturers like Karen Kane tickles my toes!

You’ll get a much better description of the labels from Michael the Marketing Director, so we’ll wait for him to chime in.

Oh what fabulous reporting, and I love love the photos. They are so amazing in conveying the creative space and process, and how busy and productive it is. So cool that you got to spend a whole day there, experiencing everything and meeting the Kanes in depth.

So interesting Angie! There is so much hard work going on behind the scene in the rag business.
I hope we will get to know something more about fit models. I am 5’8″ and I feel that most clothing is made for shorter women. I know we can’t please everyone all the time, just wondering how the fit model works.

Thanks for passing that question to me, Angie! I’d be happy to answer it. Here’s a breakdown on each brand and what differentiates them:

KAREN KANE – the main label — Karen launched Lifestyle (which is the core of her collection) in 1991, and as it grew, it replaced the other divisions that used to make up the central Karen Kane business (like her easywear & sportswear divisions). Today, it consists of 4 seasons (spring, summer, fall & holiday) which are broken up into three months each. Each month has a delivery of new products that revolve around some core carryover items that work with each month’s products. There’s approximately 45 new styles per month (that’s not counting different colors, prints, etc).

KAREN BY KAREN KANE – the casual complement to Karen Kane, this division is made up of knit pieces that are great for weekends – sweatshirts, hoodies, cardigans, sweat pants, casual tees, etc. This is sold in stores directly next to Karen Kane.

KAREN KANE WOMEN’S – launched in 1999, this is the division that caters to Karen Kane customers with a fuller figure and consists of items that are selected from Lifestyle & Karen by Karen Kane

FIFTEEN-TWENTY – this label was first launched in 2008, and is sold predominantly in specialty stores. It’s also carried by Neiman Marcus, Neiman Marcus CUSP boutiques, and Lord & Taylor (starting with Fall ’11). It’s for a more contemporary customer who’s looking for great tops & dresses (it’s not a full collection like Karen Kane is). Since the majority of the fabrications used are silk, the price point tends to be higher than Karen Kane. (to see some of it, you can find it here online: http://lonnys.com/shop/web/m-5.....wenty.aspx — official site launching in 2 or 3 months), and this is the official Facebook page for Fifteen-Twenty: https://www.facebook.com/FifteenTwentyClothing

RED 23 – This is the newest label and will be launching this fall. It’s a casual complement to Fifteen-Twenty in the same way that Karen by Karen Kane is a complement to Karen Kane. It’s predominantly casual knits & comfy fabrics designed for customers looking for great weekend wear. (some images & early info here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Red-23/179506712070862)

What an absolutely amazing post, very well written and fabulous photography. Thank you to Karen and Michael for allowing a glimpse into their world….and if I wasn’t sold on the brand already the drape of Karen’s shirt has me swooning

A big thank you to the Kane family for the behind the scenes look of their clothing label! Angie, it is so obvious that you are in your element and loving every minute of the day. I am looking forward to the rest of the series!

What I noticed straight away is how light and airy all the spaces are. I love that, and I can imagine it stimulates creativity and it’s definitely a pleasant environment to work in (at least that’s how I feel, I need lots of light;-)

Thank you for this detailed intro into the Karen Kane business, it’s mind-boggling really, isn’t it, exactly how much work goes into one collection and the sheer amount of details you have to think about (from the creative process to the moment items are in store). I think we are seeing one very talented family at work here!
(also: loved the description of everyone’s outfit, and Karen’s blouse is fantastic!).

Silly question perhaps: what exactly is “ticketing”?

Oh and thank you Michael for explaining about the different labels, that’s very helpful. Will all labels be available through the main site or will there be separate sites involved?

I love Karen Kane! I bought my first KK piece back in 1981. (30 years ago!) It was a white silk screened dolman sleeve blouse, with a zebra on it that went around to the back of it. I was traumatized when my mom did my laundry one day and washed it instead of leaving it for me to be dry cleaned.